Category Archives: Coronavirus

COVID-19 Cases Trending Down

Over the last few days the COVID-19 “Cases per 100K (last 2 weeks)” in DeKalb have gone from 122 to 117. DeKalb Schools will begin the transition to a hybrid learning model if the Cases per 100K (last 2 weeks) is below 100 for 14 days straight.

DeKalb Schools Calculations To Move To Hybrid are the conditions under which the school district would transition to a hybrid learning environment. The Georgia Department of Public Health provides a daily report with the data points used to make these calculations.

click to enlarge image

Kindergarten and Pre-K Enrollment
Enrollment is generally down across the district, but Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten seem to have been hit the hardest. Total K enrollment for the district is 4,982. DeKalb Schools originally forecasted to have 7,484 students in Kindergarten. There are 2,502 fewer kindergarten students than projected. Pre-K enrollment is down by 453 students. The originally projected Pre-K enrollment was 2,555.

Chromebook Distribution
The administration tells me this is the current status of Chromebook distribution.

• Phase I – Distribution to Grades 3-12 – 100% Complete
• Phase II – Distribution to Grades 1-2 – 100% Complete
• Phase II – Distribution to K and PreK – 0% Complete (Waiting on shipment of devices)

IT is shifting the repair strategy to prioritize new student repair requests balanced with the existing repairs form this summer.

Conditions To Move To Hybrid

On Monday, the DeKalb Schools administration presented the conditions under which the school district would transition to a hybrid learning environment. The Georgia Department of Public Health provides a daily report with numerous data points including the number of COVID-19 cases.

FORMULA
DeKalb Schools will begin the transition to a hybrid learning model if the “Cases per 100K (last 2 weeks)” is below 100 for 14 days straight.

BACK TO SCHOOL SERIES OF EVENTS
It will take 5 weeks of being below 100 cases per 100K people before children see a classroom.

2 Weeks – Every day below 100 cases
1 Week – Teachers will be given 1 weeks notice before they start working from the classroom
2 Weeks – Teachers work from the classroom for 2 weeks without students

DeKalb County COVID Trends
Given the urban environment, it will be extremely challenging to get to 100 cases per 100K for 5 weeks.

VERGE ENGAGEMENT
VERGE is the DCSD-approved and supported virtual learning environment. Teachers are also using environments outside of VERGE. Many teachers use other platforms to deliver content, instruction, and follow-up for students, however students should eventually log into VERGE. Out of 98,093 enrolled students, 75,337 of them have logged into VERGE. This seems to indicate that over 20,000 students may not be engaging online.

Update 9/17/2020 @ 11am – Comment From AJ Turner

“My daughter is a senior at Tucker High. She’s also a dual enrollment students. She has 3 classes virtually for Tucker. None of those teachers use Verge so she has never checked into Verge this school year. Therefore, I’m not sure if Verge is a good source to gauge attendance and or engagement.”

Update 9/17/2020 @ 11am – Comment From Paula Emde

“Using Verge to gauge online engagement is not an accurate tool. My two high school students have each logged on ONCE since August 17, and in chatting with another parent, one of her high school students has logged on once (for 3 minutes) and the other has never logged on at all. But all 4 students are fully engaged and present and participating.”